7 Months

Happy 7 months to Miss Penny (in normal Allison fashion) almost a week late! Still haven't gotten our 6 month pictures back to share but hopefully by next week *fingers crossed*

Weight: Approx 17.5 lbs according to our home scale, what a chubbers!
Height: Unknown

Head Circumference: Unknown

Biggest Accomplishment This Month: Not really an accomplishment, maybe more of the "biggest occurrence" this month, but we have teeth! Two bottom teeth finally broke through early on this month! She loves getting her little chompers brushed; it's one of her new favorite morning rituals! Other big accomplishments this month include learning how to wave (though she likes waving at herself more than waving to anyone else), and she's starting to learn how to soothe herself to sleep. We started a very strict bedtime routine about a week and a half ago that really seems to be helping. At 7:30pm every night, Jon reads her Goodnight Moon, lotions her up with lavender scented lotion, puts on her PJs, and turns on her special "goodnight music" that he rocks her to. After about a week of this, she has let him lay her down a few times while she was still awake and then put herself to sleep. There have still been some rough nights on and off, and nap times are still a struggle, but we're getting there!

Nap? What's a nap?

Biggest Struggle This Month: Getting really frustrated with herself that she can't crawl yet. She gets crabby almost constantly that she can't move around the way she wants to! She hasn't coordinated the moving of her legs and arms in the crawling position, but she definitely has creative ways to get around and she still is a big mover. The other day I sat her in front of the stove while I was mixing things up for dinner and a few seconds later she was under the table in the dining room, having slid herself backwards on her stomach!

Mommy's Favorite Moment: Now that she's got a couple teeth, we decided to try out a couple of finger foods. We chopped up some eggs into tiny little chunks, put them on a plate, and I (being the brilliant parent that I am) thought it would be fun to have a picnic on the couch. We laid out a blanket, set her in the middle of it with the plate, and let her go to town. Not only were the miniscule pieces that we chopped up nearly impossible for her to pick up (we were probably a little over zealous with our concern about her choking), but once she got the hang of getting a handful of eggs, she had no interest in eating them. Seriously, this kid puts EVERYTHING in her mouth, but then we give her something specifically intended to go in her mouth and she wants it everywhere else BUT in her mouth (i.e. in her hair, in my hair, all over the back of the couch, etc). Even I had to admit it was pretty hilarious though and she had a ball, making it one of my favorite "welp, this is happening so just roll with it" moments. We eventually did get some eggs into her mouth with a spoon but she wasn't super keen on the new texture so we'll probably wait awhile before trying this out again.

Mommy's Least Favorite Moment: Penny had a pretty nasty cold for a few days this month and was pretty miserable. Seeing her with the red eyes, the drippy nose, the raspy breathing, and the listless personality just breaks my heart.

Daddy's Favorite Moment: Taking her outside for the first time since she was infant! It's finally started to warm up the past week or two (and by warm up, I mean high 30s and low 40s), but up until now it has been the most frigidly cold winter I can remember so Penny has been kept tucked inside her infant car seat with layers of blankets covering her from the outside world anytime we step out the door. Since it was has become a little more manageable and we recently switched to her big girl convertible car seat that we can't carry in and out of the house, she has gotten to experience fresh air a couple of times and she LOVES it. It's obviously not warm enough to take her out into the yard to play, but we've stood out in the driveway for a few minutes just to let her take it in and she gets so excited! She starts breathing heavily and kicking her legs with a huge grin on her face, it's adorable. Absolutely can't wait until it gets legit warm so she can play outdoors.

Daddy's Least Favorite Moment: She's been going through a bit of a separation anxiety phase where she doesn't like to get set down. There was a day this month where she literally would not let us set her down ALL. DAY. We'd put her in the playpen and big tears would immediately start rolling and her arms would extend up, reaching for us to pick her back up. That was rough.

Seven Month Developmental Milestones According to What to Expect in the First Year (highlighted in green Penny has accomplished, highlighted in red she hasn't yet):

"By seven months, your baby...should be able to:

*feed self a cracker

*razz (make a wet razzing sound)

*coo or babble when happy

*smile often when interacting with you

...will probably be able to:

*sit without support

*bear some weight on legs when held upright

*object if you try to take a toy away

*work to get a toy that's out of reach

*look for a dropped object

*rake with fingers an object and pick it up in fist

*turn in the direction of a voice

*babble, combining vowels and consonants such as ga-ga-ga, ba-bab-ba, ma-ma-ma, da-da-da

*play peekaboo

...may possibly be able to:

*creep or crawl 

*pass a cube or other object from one hand to the other

*stand holding on to someone or something

...may even be able to:

*pull up to standing position from sitting - She often pulls up to a crouching position and I've seen her pull herself all the way up a couple times, though not very often yet

*get into a sitting position from stomach - Love walking in on her sitting up in her crib when we go to get her in the morning. Adorable!

*play patty-cake (clap hands) or wave bye-bye

*pick up tiny object with any part of thumb and finger

*walk holding on to furniture (cruise)

*say "mama" or "dada" indiscriminately - This was my proudest moment all month. She's been saying dada nonstop and she finally said mama this month! She obviously doesn't know what they mean yet, but it's still super fun!